Saturday, 25 July 2015

The Geffrye's café. A5 Daler sketchbook

Sketching in the café

Today was #48th Worldwide Sketchcrawl day, so I arranged to join the Drawing London on Location group at the Geffrye Museum in Hoxton. Unfortunately, my sketching mojo didn't come too. I was ready to sketch on the train but... it was packed as the Norwich train had been offloaded onto the train I caught. I found a seat, got sketchbook and glasses out and... the man next to me proceeded to tell me all about his life as a cruise ship pianist. Arriving at the museum, it was one of those days that the scale of the building was intimidating and the gardens stunning but... nothing grabbed my attention. I decided a cup of tea was the solution, which it was as I loved the organic lamps and was lucky enough to have the people I was drawing stay as long as I sketched.

After another wander around looking at the exhibits, I chatted to a few other sketchers, then decided to head off to look for my sketching mojo elsewhere. In hindsite, I think the problem was the lack of sleep caused by the huge storm and my dog keeping me awake most of last night. Either way, I hope it is back in time for the next Urbansketchers London meeting.

Sunday, 19 July 2015

Last Sunday Carlos Olvera and James Hobbs organized a sketching session on the 32st floor of one of the London's high rises,
Citypoint. Other participants included Susanne du Toit, Jane Smith and
Adam Jefford. A big thank you to everyone who made it possible and took part - it was enjoyable to sketch the London's city center from such a rare and by all means challenging viewpoint!

Thursday, 16 July 2015

Last Saturday's outing had exceptional weather in Oxford and the buzz of the place could be felt easily with tourists, graduates and families milling about.
After a hectic week (#oxfordworkshop2015) I enjoyed sketching around my favourite Radcliffe square, this time I focused not on the central Camera (room) with its great Dome but on the surrounding buildings.

A couple of photos also of the group, first at lunch time and then at the Museum of Oxford where the Urban Sketching exhibition continues until 27th July.

Next month's sketchcrawl details will be published shortly - back in central London - Katherine Tyrrell will lead that one.

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Last month I came back to London for a brief visit and set about sketching the streets of Soho. If I had the chance, I would draw all of Soho, every inch, and then I'd draw it again because it will probably have changed. It is nice to see that in this time of demolition and urban refurbishment (and the apparent culling of old pubs) that much still remains the same as ever. Above is Greek Street, drawn from the corner of Romilly Street, with the Prince's Theatre and the Palace Theatre bookending the scene. You may want to click on the image to see it in closer detail. On the left page you can see the timber-framed loveliness of the Three Greyhounds pub, on the corner of Old Compton, whose name references the old hunting grounds upon which Soho is built. The blue building in the middle is the old Maison Bertaux, a French patisserie which has served tea and cakes since 1871. On the corner is the Coach and Horses pub, also known as ‘Norman’s’
(after the infamous long-standing landlord Norman Balon, who claimed to
be the rudest landlord in London).
This pub has a good claim to being Soho’s most famous, a haunt of well known writers and actors such as Peter O’Toole, Jeffrey Barnard (he of ‘Unwell’ fame), it’s about as Proper an old Soho Drinker as it’s possible to get.

My favourite Soho pub though is the Ship. I don't know what the criteria for it being my favourite is other than it's in a good Wardour Street location (nearby to the old now-closed Intrepid Fox), I used to come here a lot, it had a lot of rockers in the past and it generally doesn't change. Well, the interior this time has been cleaned up considerably and it looks a lot shinier, but essentially it is the same old Ship and I love it. Had many a fun evening here in the past. I came in here after taking my mum to afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason. I've sketched it before (see below); back in 2009 I sat outside on a freezing cold day to capture this old Soho landmark, and I had to use three different Micron pens to draw it because the ink kept choking up in the cold. I ended up coming in for a pint and some chips to warm up, and just put my pencil case on the radiator to bring the pens back to life. London is a lot colder than California...
This last one isn't technically in Soho but it's not far away, on
St.Martin's Lane. This is the Salisbury, a pub which dates from 1898
(actually it’s much older, and was previously
called the Coach and Horses, obviously a popular pub name in these
parts). The
name refers to the Earls / Marquises of Salisbury, landowners in this
manor, the first of whom was Robert Cecil (Cecil Court is around the
corner) who was a political bigwig in Elizabethan times. Right, enough
history. This pub is in the heart of Theatreland, and has long been
associated with actors, though theatre-going tourists flock here too for
its authentic interior. After doing the inkwork and some of the wash, I
popped in for a pint and to add a little bit more paint. I chatted to
an old Irish builder nursing his Guinness while I painted, while groups
of tourists perused their maps.
I stood next to the now boarded-up and under-redevelopment location of the Angel and Crown, right opposite. I had sketched that pub before back in 2008, on a rainy day in May (see below). I remember being so pleased to sketch in the rain, something we really don't see in Davis any more. I'll need to sketch it again when it reopens, whatever it turns out to be...

Monday, 13 July 2015

There have been lots of Arts Festivals in my part of South
East London recently and I’ve been lucky to have taken part in some. For the past two weekends I’ve had some
sketches on display at a bistro in Sydenham which gave me the opportunity to do
some drawing there too.

The interior design was quite fascinating as all the fixtures and fittings were recycled and put together in collections for maximum impact. I hardly drew any people!

I did try to sketch one of the performers who did some
improvised jazz tap dancing on one of the afternoons. I had a go at doing a very simple animation
of the sketches using ‘Vine’ to capture each of the images, adding clapping to
try and get the feel of the tap sounds.

About Urban Sketchers London

Urban Sketchers is a network of artists around the world who draw the cities where they live and travel to. Our mission is to "Show the World, One Drawing at a Time." Visit the main Urban Sketchers blog for more information.